TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has approved a bill designed to shorten the Legislature’s annual sessions.
Its vote Thursday was 25-11 on a measure that would limit sessions to 100 days in odd-numbered years and to 60 days in even-numbered years.
The measure goes next to the House.
The proposal came after the 2015 annual session lasted a record 114 days.
The state constitution doesn’t limit sessions in odd-numbered years, though the tradition is 90 days. Sessions in even-numbered years are limited to 90 days.
Under the bill, legislators still could vote to extend their sessions longer, as they can now.
Some senators thought the bill is unnecessary, but supporters said it would promote efficiency and cut the state’s costs.
The Kansas Ag Research & Technology Association (KARTA) announced late last month that they will be making up to $11,000 available for research funding in 2016. Several KARTA members have already submitted their grant applications to let us know what they will be researching this year. At the 2017 conference, researchers will give presentations explaining the results of their projects.
There is still time for you to apply for your own project or apply to join in with one of the existing projects as a group participant. Group research gives producers in different parts of the region a look at how your trials could work in their operation.
Grants are still available for group and individual projects with an additional $100 for first-time participants.
Projects & locations already lined up for 2016:
Cover Crops (East and Northwest KS)
Gypsum as a Soil Amendment (Central KS)
Haney Soil Test comparison (North Central KS)
Ascend in Winter Wheat (Northwest and South Central KS)
Grain Sorghum Seeding Rates (Western KS and Northeast OK)
AgBoost NutriPlant in Irrigated Corn (Northwest KS)
Long-term Impacts of Winter Canola in Crop Rotation System (Northeast OK)
sUAS Imagery for Leak Detection in Drip Tape Irrigation (Northwest KS)
Comparison of Soil Sampling Methods (North Central KS)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new survey suggests there’s been a little improvement in some bankers’ views of the rural economy in their 10 Western and Plains states.
A report released Thursday says February’s Rural Mainstreet Index rose to 37.0 from 34.8 in January. Survey officials say any score below 50 on any of the survey’s indexes suggests that factor will decline.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the monthly survey, and he says it’s the sixth straight month that the index has registered below growth neutral.
The report says 8.7 percent of bank CEOs who responded say their local economy was expanding while 36.9 percent say their local economy was in a recession.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has given first-round approval to a resolution calling for a convention to propose changes in the U.S. Constitution to lessen the federal government’s power.
The vote Thursday was 77-44 on calling for a convention of the states. But conservative Republicans backing the idea will need a two-thirds majority of 84 votes in the 125-member chamber to prevail in a final vote Monday.
The U.S. Constitution allows 34 states to call for such a convention, and supporters anticipate each state having one vote in it. Constitutional changes still would have to be ratified in 38 states for them to take effect.
Supporters of the convention said the federal government is out of control. But Democratic Rep. Ed Trimmer of Winfield said he sees “too much opportunity for mischief.”
HARTFORD– Everyone has heard of, and probably participated in, a spelling bee. But did you know there is such a thing as a wing bee? There is and it is well-known among waterfowl biologists. While it’s not a competition, the wing bee is part of the annual waterfowl harvest monitoring process, and each year it brings professional biologists and enforcement officers to a single location to analyze approximately 18,000 duck wings and 6,000 goose tail fans.
This year marks the 52nd year of the Central Flyway Wing Bee, which has been hosted for the last 25 years by the by Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism and Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge.
Wing bee participants are in Hartford in Lyon County through Thursday to examine wings and tail feathers in order to estimate the species, age, and sex of waterfowl harvested in the Central Flyway. Each year since 1964, a sample of waterfowl hunters have been asked to send a wing from each duck and primary wing feathers and tail from each goose they harvested.
The task of reading or classifying the large sample of wings and tails requires an extensive cadre of willing, dedicated and often highly experienced workers. In a typical year, about 40 biologists and enforcement officers from state wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and universities assemble for four days to “read” wings. In the 25 years that Kansas has hosted the wing bee, more than half-a-million parts have been analyzed.
MIAMI COUNTY – Former Osawatomie Police Department Chief of Police Robert Butters was arrested Thursday on charges that the Miami County Attorney filed, stemming from an incident on Tuesday in Osawatomie, according to a media release from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
Butters was arrested for Aggravated Intimidation of a Witness, Attempted Interference with a Law Enforcement Officer, and Possession of a Firearm While Under the Influence of Alcohol and or Drugs.
Butters is being held on a $250,000 bond in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The Miami County Sheriff’s Office, Osawatomie Police Department, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation continue to investigate this matter
No further information was released in order to preserve the sanctity of this investigation, according to the KBI.
BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a suspect in connection with a residential burglary.
Just after 3 a.m. on Monday, Great Bend Police Officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of 12th Street, in reference to a lady reporting she heard noise in her backyard, near her garage, according to a media release.
When officers arrived, they heard noise coming from inside the garage of the residence.
Once they determined that someone was inside, they surrounded the structure and apprehended a man, later identified as Kerry Partridge, Jr.
Inside the garage, officers located a bag with various tools inside it, which they ascertained were likely used to pry open a window into the garage. They also located damage to the ceiling and wall of the garage, where the subject had apparently tried to create an escape from the structure when he realized he was surrounded.
Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook had served since 2013 as chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee before Senate President Susan Wagle ousted her last week. HEARTLAND HEALTH MONITOR
Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook offered an amendment to expand Medicaid last week because she believed it would fail.
A few days later, Senate President Susan Wagle removed Pilcher-Cook as chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee because Pilcher-Cook pushed the amendment even though it was ruled out of order.
On Wednesday, the Kansas Senate’s top Republican said she would not reinstate the former chairwoman of the chamber’s health committee.
Wagle said she opposes Medicaid expansion but wants the Senate to vote on it in the next few weeks.
Confused yet? Welcome to the politics of “Obamacare.”
Pilcher-Cook’s amendment
Pilcher-Cook, a Republican from Shawnee, does not like the Affordable Care Act — commonly referred to as Obamacare — including the Medicaid expansion portion of it.
So why would she offer an amendment to expand Medicaid?
The answer starts in the opposite chamber, where House Speaker Ray Merrick, another expansion opponent, began the session by removing three members of his health committee because they support expansion.
Some legislative watchers think the House might have enough votes to pass a Medicaid expansion bill if it comes to the floor.
Merrick has worked to keep that from happening. But just in case it does, Pilcher-Cook wanted the Senate to “send a message” to the House by soundly voting down her amendment.
The language of her amendment was taken straight from Senate Bill 371 and its companion, House Bill 2633, which proponents call the “Bridge to a Healthy Kansas” program.
The bill was introduced at the behest of the Kansas Hospital Association, which says its members are missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds because Kansas has declined to expand Medicaid eligibility. It’s estimated that Medicaid expansion would extend health insurance to 150,000 Kansans.
The Senate rules
The Senate never got to a vote on the Pilcher-Cook amendment.
In another weird twist, a Democrat who supports expansion, Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, challenged whether the amendment was germane to the underlying bill.
The Senate Rules Committee determined it was not. The debate then turned bitter.
Pilcher-Cook challenged the rules committee’s determination — a relatively rare move, especially for a member of the majority party.
That forced the Senate to vote on whether to uphold the rules committee’s determination, which it did 22-15.
Some of the senators who voted against the rules committee, including Sen. Forrest Knox, a Republican from Altoona, suggested the committee was trying to avoid a vote on Medicaid expansion rather than uphold the rules.
Senate Vice President Jeff King, chairman of the rules committee, responded by emphasizing that the determination was unanimous.
The subtext of that was clear: Since a hospital in his district closed last year, King has pushed for an open legislative debate on how to find a “Kansas solution” that would draw down the federal Medicaid expansion money. That places him at odds with fellow Republicans like Pilcher-Cook and Knox who have expressed no willingness to cede an inch on anything connected to Obamacare.
By stressing that the ruling was unanimous, King was signaling that he didn’t make the call and it wasn’t about anyone’s personal stance on expansion.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, the lone Democrat on the five-member rules committee, said in a later interview that the committee didn’t discuss the merits of Medicaid expansion at all when it debated Pilcher-Cook’s amendment. But he did mention that the hospital association’s bill sat in Pilcher-Cook’s committee, and she could schedule a hearing on it whenever she wished.
After ousting Pilcher-Cook, Senate President Susan Wagle issued a statement: ‘Breaking the rules of the Senate and putting senators unnecessarily in a position of choosing between upholding the rules of the body or being seen as supporting Obamacare is unacceptable for any committee chair.’ CREDIT STEPHEN KORANDA / KPR
Why did Wagle remove Pilcher-Cook?
Pilcher-Cook claims Wagle ousted her from the committee because Wagle is a closet Obamacare supporter and not sufficiently conservative.
Five years ago such statements would have sounded outlandish, bordering on absurd. Wagle has been in the Senate since 2001 and has long been considered one of the chamber’s most conservative members.
But the last two elections have moved the Senate further right. Wagle is still plenty conservative for her caucus on most issues, but she has expressed some openness to revising Gov. Sam Brownback’s controversial business tax exemption passed in 2012. Years ago Wagle made statements similar to the ones King is making now about finding a “Kansas solution” on Medicaid expansion.
Wagle has tempered those positions with talk of disliking Obamacare and liking tax cuts in general. But it’s hard to govern and hold together a caucus.
The fight over Pilcher-Cook’s amendment exposed a rift within the Senate Republican caucus that threatens Wagle’s authority.
When a member of the minority party challenges the rules committee — like Rep. Jim Ward did in the House just one day later — leadership can brush it off as a partisan maneuver. But when a member of the majority party does so, it’s a sign of a power struggle within the party.
Pilcher-Cook’s removal as leader of the health committee has more to do with her role in that power struggle than it does with Medicaid expansion specifically.
The latest sign of the rift? The Associated Press reported Tuesday that 17 of the 32 Republicans in the Senate — including Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce — have signed a petition asking Wagle to reinstate Pilcher-Cook as health committee chairwoman.
What does all of this mean for expansion?
Now that Pilcher-Cook is no longer the committee chairwoman, what does that mean for Medicaid expansion? It may clear the way for more discussion of the issue, but probably little more than that, at least for this year.
Even Medicaid expansion’s most ardent supporters privately concede it’s a tough sell this session, with lawmakers scrambling to balance the budget and keep government functioning before facing the voters in the August primaries and November general election.
Kansas Republicans used their opposition to Obamacare as a campaign issue in each of the last two legislative election cycles, and Medicaid expansion is the only part of the law that they actually have much jurisdiction over at the state level.
Expansion advocates are trying to rebrand it as “KanCare expansion” to associate it with Brownback’s Medicaid managed care changes rather than the federal law that President Barack Obama spearheaded.
The hospital association also is stressing that unlike traditional expansion under “Obamacare,” its plan is a budget-neutral remix similar to red-state models like Indiana’s.
The association is trying to build grassroots support through forums like one scheduled for March 2 in Topeka.
But rebranding and building support takes time. Until they have their ducks in a row, expansion supporters don’t want any negative votes that could stop any momentum they’re finally starting to generate.
Even so, they wouldn’t mind the opportunity to make their case in a public hearing.
That could be more likely now that Pilcher-Cook isn’t running the Senate health committee. Sen. Michael O’Donnell, the interim chair, said Monday that he planned to continue with the light agenda Pilcher-Cook set for this week, then look to Wagle for guidance as to whom she will pick to lead the committee on a permanent basis.
Whoever ends up with the job will decide whether to schedule hearings on expansion and a host of other issues like medical marijuana, licensure requirements for massage therapists, prohibiting minors from using commercial tanning beds and an AARP-sponsored caregiver bill.
On O’Donnell’s first day, Haley already was pressing him for hearings on medical marijuana.
But even if Medicaid expansion gets a committee hearing and the testimony for it is compelling, it remains a long shot this year.
Wagle has promised a Senate vote, but only in order to mollify Senate Republicans who want to reiterate their opposition to Obamacare with a “no” vote before heading home to campaign for re-election.
The hospital association is urging Kansans to contact their legislators in advance of that vote. But absent an overwhelming groundswell of support from the general public, even Hensley said expansion probably will have to wait until after the election.
“It might be able to pass in the House, but I don’t foresee that it’s going to have the votes to pass in the Senate, because it’s such a political football,” Hensley said. “It’s Obamacare.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new report shows the number of farms and ranches fell last year in Kansas.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Thursday that the state had 60,400 farms in 2015, down 600 from the previous year.
The number of farms with less than $100,000 in agricultural sales decreased by 800 farms, while the number of those with more than $100,000 in sales grew by 200 farms.
Kansas has 46 million acres of land in farms and ranches, unchanged from a year earlier.
The agency says the average size of farming operations is 762 acres, up 8 acres from 2014.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 campaign for president (all times local):
Asked about Donald Trump’s views on immigration, Pope Francis says anyone who wants to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border isn’t Christian.
Trump has promised to build a wall along the Mexican border from Texas to California and expel 11 million people who are in the country illegally if elected president. The Pope’s comments en route home from Mexico came hours after he prayed at the Mexico-U.S. border for migrants who died trying to reach the United States.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said. “This is not in the Gospel.”
Not having heard Trump’s border plans independently, Francis said he’d “give him the benefit of the doubt.” But he added:
“I’d just say that this man is not Christian if he said it this way,” Francis said.
Donald Trump said religious leader questioning a person’s faith is “disgraceful,” responding forcefully to comments from Pope Francis that anyone who wants to build a border wall isn’t a Christian.
The Republican candidate for president says Thursday the Pope should wish that he is elected to the White House, and he accused the Mexican government of using Francis as a “pawn” and says the leader of the Roman Catholic Church “only heard one side of the story.”
Pope Francis spoke as he traveled home from a visit to Mexico. When asked about Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, Francis said: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
Trump replied to the Pope during a campaign stop in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. He says, “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president.”
Trump went on to say, “for religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
“No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” Trump says.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A white Missouri police officer has been placed on unpaid leave after he appeared in a racially charged music video wearing his uniform and carrying a sign reading “cop lives matter.”
Caution, the video found here contains language not suitable for younger viewers.
St. Joseph patrolman Zackary Craft also is seen reaching for his gun in the video for “Before This Bomb Blows Up (Racism Goes Both Ways)” by Josh Smith, a white suburban Kansas City rapper who performs as J.Smitty.
Smith says he took down the video when Craft was suspended last week but reposted it Thursday with Craft’s face blurred.
Rapper Joshua Smith Image from the YouTub Video
Craft’s attorney, Morgan Roach, says Craft allowed himself to be filmed “without knowing the words, content, or context” and was “appalled” when he saw the video.
Police spokesman Capt. Jeff Wilson says the department “in no way condones the video.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An effort by Kansas lawmakers to repeal Common Core standards could also mean the end to Advanced Placement Classes and International Baccalaureate programs.
The Wichita Eagle reports the House Education Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would compel Kansas school districts to develop new standards for reading, math, science and other subjects.
Those standards would replace Common Core-inspired Kansas College and Career Ready Standards that have been in place since 2010.
The vote came after committee members heard a presentation from Duke Pesta, a Wisconsin professor and outspoken critic of Common Core.
The Kansas State Department of Education has estimated the development of new standards would take two years and cost $9 million.
Sarah Shipman, Kansas Secretary of AdministrationOffice of KS Governor
TOPEKA–The Kansas Senate Wednesday, by a vote of 37-3, approved Governor Sam Brownback’s cabinet nominee for Secretary of Administration, Sarah Shipman.
“I am pleased Sarah’s qualifications were so widely recognized by members of the Senate,” said Governor Brownback. “She is deeply knowledgeable about the department’s responsibilities and extremely well suited for this position. She will serve the citizens of Kansas well.”
Shipman was appointed by the Governor on July 24, 2015.
She has been with the Department of Administration since October 2011 and served as its Deputy Secretary and Chief Counsel since March 2014. She received her Juris Doctor from Washburn University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Southwestern College.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has approved a bill designed to shorten the Legislature’s annual sessions.
